The Stingiest Mare in Town
by Daniel Fielder
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Sunset Shimmer, a stingy unicorn, is visited by spirits to convince her to change her ways before it's too late.
1. Sunset Shimmer

My Little Pony with Rankin Bass. Merry Christmas! … In June…

Disclaimer: My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro, the Hub and Lauren Faust while the Stingiest Man in Town belongs to Rankin-Bass. I own nothing.

* * *

 **The Stingiest Mare in Town**

Prologue: Sunset Shimmer

 _Holly-ho!_

 _Holly ho-ho-ho!_

 _Holly ho! Tally ho!_

 _Sing a Christmas Carol written long ago._

Pinkie was hanging out in a luxurious apartment when we walked up.

" _Written long ago._ " Pinkie repeated when she noticed us. "The merriest of Merry Christmases to you."

"Who are you?" I asked?

"Who am I?" Pinkie exclaimed. "I'm Pinkie Pie. Welcome to the home of the kindest and most generous mare in Canterlot, Sunset Shimmer." Pinkie continued.

"What?" My friend Rob asked in shock.

"You're surprised I call Sunset kind and generous." Pinkie observed. "Well, you can take my word for it. True, Sunset wasn't always so jolly. There was a time when she was as mean and miserable as the counting house in which she conducted his business. The offices of Sunset and Trixie. Now Trixie was dead to begin with, but old Revan never paid to have Trixie's name crossed out. Hee-hee!" She suddenly giggled. "I'm talking funny today. Anyway, singing time!"

 _There was a mean and stingy mare_

 _Named Sunset Shimmer._

 _Her heart was hard and cold_

 _Because she was the devil's gear._

 _While she set down to count the gold_

 _That her mind could never leave._

 _Young ponies in the square outside…_

"Merry Christmas!" Several children called out, disrupting Sunset's train of thought.

 _Celebrated Christmas Eve._

"Away!" Sunset shouted, brandishing an umbrella. "Away with you and your 'Merry Christmas'!"

The children scattered upon seeing Sunset.

"Christmas." Sunset scoffed as she sat back down. "Bah humbug. Humbug!"

"That used to be her favorite word." Pinkie explained to us. "My family were housekeepers for Sunset before they moved back to the rock farm, so she had me stay and do my family's old work load. Oh, Sunset was a tight-fisted mare. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner. Until that Christmas Eve, not too long ago, when the ghosts came. My new friends, allow me to tell you a Ghost Story for Christmas. _**The Stingiest Mare in Town**_."

* * *

And you'll hear it too, in a few days, hopefully. So keep an eye out.


	2. Merry Christmas Aunt Sunset

Chapter 1: Merry Christmas Aunt Sunset

It was Christmas Eve, about two years back, and the ponies in the streets of Canterlot were singing.

 _An old fashioned Christmas,_

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like,_

 _A pretty Christmas Card._

Inside, Pinkie Pie, the personal aid of Sunset, was talking with Sunset's clerk, Applejack, while the music was going on.

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _And candlelight shining down,_

 _On friends surrounding me._

Pinkie did a little dance as Applejack smiled when Sunset burst in. Applejack was an orange mare with a blonde mane and green eyes.

"Applejack!" Sunset called out as the pink aid stopped, and Applejack stood at attention. "A pretty way to be wasting my time. 'An old fashioned Christmas.' You'll be an old fashioned pauper if you don't attend to your work."

"Ya wouldn't discharge me, ma'am." Applejack said nervously. "Not on Christmas Eve."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Sunset asked when a lump of coal fell out of Applejack's satchel. "What's this? Stealing my coal, are we?"

"For the stove, ma'am." Applejack said meekly. "It's so danged chilly in here."

Applejack had to sneak the coal in lump by lump when Sunset's back was turned; luckily, she was never severely punished for it, especially since the office was actually a little refreshing in the summers.

"Next thing, you'll be picking my pockets." Sunset said with a sneer.

"Oh look, ma'am." Applejack said as she saw a figure with a white coat pass the window. "Your niece Sweetie Belle is coming to pay you a visit."

"What's that fool want?" Sunset asked just as Sweetie Belle popped in.

"I like her, ma'am." Applejack said. "Her smile warms my heart."

Sweetie Belle was a young mare with a violet mane and bright green eyes.

" _Merry Christmas, Aunt Sunset!_ " Sweetie Belle called out.

" _Humbug!_ " Sunset called back dismissively.

" _Oh, be merry, Aunt Sunset._ " Sweetie Belle persisted.

"Ha-ha-ha." Sunset said in a lackluster way.

 _What's so merry on Christmas Day?_

 _The merry money you throw away?_

 _The merry bills you have to pay?_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say bah!_

Applejack shrugged at Pinkie, neither of them really knew why Sunset was so cold and unfeeling.

" _Here's a present, Aunt Sunset._ " Sweetie Belle said as she handed a box to Sunset.

" _Humbug!_ " Sunset called out as she opened the present to reveal, as she suspected, a tie.

 _I think you are a fool to waste your cash._

 _What's the present you always buy?_

 _A handkerchief or an awful tie._

 _Look at this tie, and you'll know why,_

 _When I get Christmas presents,_

 _I say trash!_

Sunset tossed the tie away as it ended up wrapped around Applejack's neck.

"It's you." Pinkie said encouragingly.

" _But everything at Christmas is so jolly and lively._ " Sweetie Belle continued. " _The Christmas trees and wreaths of holly._ "

" _Poison ivy._ " Sunset scoffed.

" _The girls and boys who dream about St. Nicholas._ " Sweetie Belle went on.

" _St. Nicholas?_ " Sunset asked. " _Ridiculous._ "

" _Don't you like him, Aunt Sunset?_ " Sweetie Belle asked.

" _Humbug!_ " Sunset called out.

' _Good old, Nicholas.'_

 _That's a lot of slosh!_

 _I abominate old St. Nick._

 _His reckless spending makes me sick._

 _I think St. Nick's a lunatic._

 _When you say 'Old St. Nicholas',_

 _I say bosh!_

"Oh, don't be so cross, Auntie." Sweetie Belle insisted. "Come, dine with us tomorrow."

"Christmas dinner?" Sunset scoffed. "What a revolting, repugnant institution."

" _Oh don't you like a juicy Christmas turkey?_ " Sweetie Belle asked.

" _Detest it._ " Sunset argued.

" _Plum pudding with a brandy sauce?_ " Sweetie Belle went on.

" _Can't digest it._ " Sunset said airily.

" _You'll get a mellow feeling for equinity._ " Sweetie Belle went on.

"' _Equinity?' Insanity!_ " Sunset called out again.

At this, Applejack had to hold Pinkie back as she was ready to give Revan a piece of her mind over her lack of compassion.

" _You'll enjoy it, Aunt Sunset._ " Sweetie Belle assured her.

" _Humbug!_ " Sunset said once more.

 _It may be fun for you, but not for me._

 _I'm not happy on Christmas Day._

 _I'm never cheerful. I'm never gay._

 _If you think I could feel that way,_

 _Then you are just as stupid as can be._

Sunset then backed Sweetie Belle back to the door.

 _If you think I'd be merry,_

 _And chirp like a canary,_

 _Then you are even dumber than a dumb bug!_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say fiddlesticks! Poppycock!_

 _And just plain humbug! Humbug!_

 _Humbug, humbug, HUMBUG!_

"I pity you, Auntie." Sweetie Belle said calmly. "Maybe I'll never be as rich as you, but I'll go to my grave still believing in a merry Christmas."

"Good afternoon." Sunset said as she opened the door for Sweetie Belle.

"A wonderful Christmas!" Sweetie Belle went on.

"Good afternoon!" Sunset said a bit more forcefully.

"A magnificent Christmas!" Sweetie Belle finished.

"GOOD AFTERNOON!" Sunset shouted as she kicked Sweetie Belle out of the house.

()()()()()

Sweetie Belle picked herself up, brushed herself down and began walking, joining the carolers in song.

 _An old fashioned Christmas._

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like_

 _A pretty Christmas card._

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _With candlelight dancing down_

 _On friends surrounding me._

* * *

Man, that kid is a rock!


	3. The Chains

Chapter 2: The Chains

As the clock chimed five, the end of the work day, Applejack finished up and nervously went to Sunset.

"You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose." Sunset groaned.

"If it's convenient ma'am." Applejack said. "After all, it is Christmas Eve."

"It's not convenient." Sunset muttered. "And it's not fair. I have you pay you a day's wages for nothing. All this holiday garbage will have me in the poor house."

"Don't fall for it, Applejack." Pinkie muttered. Sunset was a sly old business mare.

"Well ma'am." Applejack said. "If things are so bad for you, you don't have to pay me for the whole day."

"First sensible thing you've said all day, Applejack." Sunset said. "I'll pay you half a day, and no more."

"Alright." Applejack said.

She and Sunset walked out as Pinkie reluctantly followed Sunset. Pinkie was furious at him.

 _How can anypony be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anypony be so stingy?_

 _She's the stingiest mare in town!_

Sunset sighed as she checked his cash box for the day, full as expected.

"Uh, you're lucky you're dead as a doornail, Trixie." Sunset sighed. "And not bothered with Christmas. I'm lucky too. I don't have to share the profits with you, anymore."

 _Old Sunset's such a stingy mare._

 _The tightest mare found anywhere._

 _Oh she's so tight, so tight I say,_

 _She wouldn't give a bride away._

 _It hurts her so to pay one cent._

 _She wouldn't pay a compliment._

 _She uses lightning bugs at night_

 _To save the cash she pays for light._

 _How can anypony be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anypony be so stingy?_

 _She's the stingiest mare in town!_

 _And when her Hurst goes rolling by,_

 _No mare alive is gonna cry._

 _But you can bet her ghost will curse,_

 _Because she's paying for the Hurst._

 _And when it's time for her to go,_

 _Her soul will travel down below._

 _And when she gets there, you can tell_

 _Because you'll hear old Satan yell,_

" _How can anypony be so stingy?!_

 _So stingy?! So stingy?!_

 _She's the stingiest man in town!"_

Sunset went to an old house that used to belong to Trixie, having been left to Sunset in her will. There was something strange about that night. The mist was so dark that it seemed like death sat in meditation. Sunset went to the doorknob when suddenly it became the face of Trixie! There was no mistake. She had the same curled mane and unicorn horn.

"Trixie?" Sunset gasped. "Trixie? But you've been dead for seven years! Oh, why have you come back to haunt me?!"

The doorknob returned to normal, and Sunset sighed.

"Just my imagination." Sunset sighed. "Bah humbug. I better get to bed."

Sunset walked in as Pinkie followed. Pinkie's family had been Trixie's aids, and Sunset inherited their use with the house.

"Didn't seem like a humbug to me,." Pinkie said as she passed the door nervously.

After the commotion, Sunset went straight to bed, however…

 _That night when old Sunset Shimmer_

 _Lay dreaming in her room,_

 _She heard the sound of rattling chains_

 _Come clanking through the gloom._

 _And while she lay there shivering_

 _In the icy grip of fear,_

 _The ghost of Sunset's partner,_

 _Old mare Trixie did appear…_

Trixie looked the same, but she was covered in chains and cash boxes.

"Sunset Shimmer…" Trixie said moaning as if in pain or misery. "In life I was your partner, Trixie."

"Bah!" Sunset said. "You're just an hallucination!"

"See me." Trixie said as calm as the sea. "Why do you doubt your senses?"

Trixie removed her lower jaw and roared at her. Shocking Sunset as Trixie refixed her jaw back on as easy and normally as talking on the phone.

"What do you want with me?" Sunset asked nervously.

"Much." Trixie explained. "Look at Trixie. Condemned to walk the galaxy in death because she wasted her life."

"Wasted?" Sunset asked. "How Trixie?"

"I helped myself to money." Trixie said with a weep. "Instead of helping my neighbor, and so I wear this chain of greed and heartlessness I forged in life."

 _I wear a chain. A heavy chain_

 _Is bound around my soul._

 _A chain of sin and vices_

 _That I could not control._

 _Repent your crimes. Repent in time._

 _Or you'll repent in vain._

 _For if you wait until too late,_

 _You'll never break your chains._

 _Although my chain is very long,_

 _The one you wear is longer._

 _My chain of wrong is very strong,_

 _But yours is even stronger._

 _You must escape! Escape my fate!_

 _Cast of the sins that bind you,_

 _Or you will find when you pass on,_

 _You'll drag your chain behind you!_

"But it's not right for you to be so condemned!" Sunset said, applying this to herself as well. "You were only doing business in life as I do now. And business is business."

"Mankind should have been my business." Trixie said. "You still have time to repent. Reform!"

"How?" Sunset asked.

"Tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits." Trixie said.

"I'd rather not." Sunset said quaking for the first time in many, many years.

"Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread." Trixie retorted. "Expect the first tonight when the bell tolls one."

Trixie then walked to the window and opened it as Sunset saw several ponies with chains like Malak's, some were shorter, some were longer, but all looked extremely heavy to carry.

"See the phantoms that fill the night air." Trixie elaborated. "Each with chains. None free, and I must go with them."

Trixie floated down to the others and turned to Sunset.

"Observe and know our misery, Sunset." Trixie went on. "Now we seek to do good in equine matters but have lost the power forever. Repent! Repent…!"

"No!" Sunset said more out of fear of the sight than refusing to repent. "NO!"

Sunset shut the window as Pinkie rushed to see the sight, having seen Trixie with Sunset.

"They're gone…" Trixie said with a shiver.

* * *

Oh my… That must suck for Trixie.


	4. Little Rarity

Chapter 3: Little Rarity

After the shock of seeing Trixie's ghost, Sunset went to sleep, and Sunset was suddenly awoken when the bell of the grandfather clock down in her study stroke one.

As Sunset got up, she was aware of a bright light and pulled back the curtains to reveal a figure, she was an alicorn mare with a purple coat and matching eyes and a navy blue mane with red strips.

"Who are you?" Sunset asked.

"I am the ghost of Christmas Past." The mare said.

"Long past?" Sunset asked.

"No." The mare said. "Your past. You can call me Twilight for simplicity's sake. Now take my hoof."

Twilight hesitantly took it, and all of a sudden, they were flying over the city before arriving at a smaller suburb.

"I don't know where we're going." Sunset thought aloud. "But everything looks strangely familiar."

"Look upon yourself when you were younger." Twilight said as she led Sunset to a school house where an eleven-year-old filly with the same fiery mane and teal eyes as her was alone at a schoolhouse reading a book.

"Do you know this child?" Twilight asked.

"Know her?" Sunset said. "That's me."

"Mind if I ask why you are all alone in there?" Twilight asked.

"I wasn't wanted at home, so I just took to staying over at the old boarding school full time." Sunset explained. "Give myself a chance to… To catch up on my reading."

There was a knock at the door as young Sunset finished reading, and she opened it to reveal a white purple maned filly with blue eyes.

"Oh Sunset, Sunset!" Rarity squealed. "I just talked to Mother, and she said you can come back! We can be together all Christmas long!"

"Really?" Sunset asked.

"Yes!" Rarity insisted. "We're going to have the merriest Christmas ever, and be together always!"

"Right." Sunset said with a smile as she walked off with her sister.

"Always a delicate girl who a breath might have withered." Twilight stated. "But she had a big heart."

"Yes." Sunset said as she began choking up. "She did."

"She died a mare and had foals, correct?" Twilight asked.

"One foal." Sunset sighed.

"True." Twilight went on. "Your niece Sweetie Belle."

"And when Rarity died, I swore I'd never love anything again."

"But you did love again." Twilight said. "Come…"

Twilight took Sunset's hoof, and in an instant, they were off again.

* * *

I had to add this. I couldn't resist.


	5. It Might Have Been

Chapter 5: It Might Have Been

Almost an instant after watching his younger self leave with Rarity, Sunset found herself outside a building she hadn't seen in years.

"Why, this is where my first job was." Sunset gaped. "Yes, old Cake's offices. It sounds like one of his Christmas parties are going on!"

Sunset looked in excitedly, acting surprisingly more like she used to rather than how she acted in the present. Sunset looked in and saw herself not all that different from her present self, if a bit more joyful, dancing with an orange pegasus stallion with a blue mane and blue eyes.

"That's me, and my fiancé, Flash!" Sunset called out. "I remember it like it was yesterday. After the dance, we went out into the snow to cool ourselves. Oh, what were we whispering on that long ago day?"

"But you can't be serious, Flash." The younger Sunset said plainly.

"There's no reason we can't get married now." Flash said plainly. "Don't you love me, Sunset?"

"More than the world." Sunset assured Flash. "But I would rather wait until I was more secure, financially."

"No, you young fool!" Sunset snapped at her former self.

"Don't say that, dear." Flash said to the past Sunset. "You frighten me."

"I only want what's best for you." Sunset went on.

"That's what I want too." Flash added. "A tiny cottage."

"A cottage?" Sunset asked.

" _I want a gilded cottage._ " Flash explained.

" _We can't afford it yet._ " Sunset explained. " _But when I've made my fortune, what mansions we will get._ "

" _I only want a little cottage with children playing on the floor._ " Flash explained calmly.

" _But darling love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door._ " Sunset insisted.

 _I think of you, and my future gleams._

 _And my mind is filled with golden dreams._

 _I think of you, and I love you so._

 _All the world takes on a golden glow._

 _So hold me close, tonight._

 _And fill me with dreams of delight._

 _I think of you and your love for me._

 _And I know that life with you will be_

 _More beautiful than it seems_

 _In my golden … Dreams . . ._

As the two embraced and kissed each other, Sunset could feel tears on her face.

"I…" Sunset said, trying to hold back the tears. "I shouldn't have remembered."

"There is another Christmas." Twilight said, and in that instant, they were just outside Sunset and Trixie's old business. "You'd just formed your partnership with Trixie. Your business was new, but your ways were set."

"Oh please." Sunset gasped. "Spare me the rest."

"You must drain the cup to the dregs." Twilight insisted. "Recall how you drove love from your heart and replaced it with the worship of money."

"No!" Sunset gasped.

"Yes!" Flash snapped at the younger Revan, both having obviously been through much darker times since the party. "Another idol has replaced me!"

"Oh really?" Sunset asked dismissively. "That's going a bit far, don't you think?"

Sunset then sat down and went over her books as this was a while before Applejack became her clerk.

"Hm." Sunset groaned. "Hooves is six months in default. Do you realize how much money I stand to lose?"

"But Sunset, it is Christmas." Flash insisted, closing the book.

"Christmas?!" Sunset said as she shot up in anger, not for the first or last time. "Christmas is a folly, a sham, a waste of time! It's a… A humbug! Yes, yes. Christmas is a humbug."

Flash gasped and turned away.

"I… I wish to break off our engagement, Sunset." Flash said.

"You can't be serious." Sunset said in honest shock. "Why?"

"You've become someone I don't know." Flash said. "Someone I don't wish to know."

 _You've lost the beautiful tomorrow._

 _You really had a chance to win._

 _Our love has turned into a shadow_

 _Of happiness that might have been._

"Oh phooey." Sunset said as she turned her back to him, mistakenly thinking he was just hysterical.

 _It might have been_

 _A warm and wonderful romance._

 _It might have been_

 _If you had given it a chance._

 _You had the ticket to enchanted lands._

 _Why did you let it slip right through your hands?_

Unable to bare it, Flash rushed out of the building, Sunset moved to follow, but she couldn't bring herself to do it and simply went back to her books.

 _I might have known_

 _A life of happiness with you,_

 _But love has flown._

 _The wrong I've done, I can't undo._

 _And now too late, my bitter tears begin._

 _Because I know… It might… Have… Been. . ._

As Sunset watched her former self let Flash leave she turned to Twilight.

"I can't bare it!" Sunset called out. "HAUNT ME NO LONGER!"

Sunset went to Twilight, but all she grabbed was her clock.

"Oh…" Sunset sighed. "Thank heavens."

Sunset went back to sleep as Pinkie, having been in an adjoining room, came in just to see what was going on, when a loud laugh was heard, and Sunset bolt up, and both looked down to a yellow light from the living room.

* * *

Uh-oh. Looks like the number two ghost is right on time.


	6. Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Chapter 5: Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Sunset and Pinkie slowly walked into the room as it was suddenly filled with grand decorations and a huge Christmas tree.

"My parlor!" Sunset gaped. "What happened to my parlor?"

Sunset looked around and saw a white mare with a rainbow mane as she stood at the table.

"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present." The mare said. "You can call me, Celestia. Now come and know me better for you have never known the likes of me before."

"What exactly are you?" Sunset asked, unsure of just how this Alicorn mare represented Christmas.

"The Christmas Spirit." Celestia said as she put her horn over some toys as Sunset, in them, saw many childhood memories and hopes, though that might only have been a residual effect from his previous visitor.

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Twinkling lamps and girls and boys._

 _Mingle with the jingling of joys._

 _Words of hope and happy times,_

 _Sound to the music of chimes!_

 _Jumping jacks, and dancing dolls,_

 _Tumble to the jumble of bouncing balls._

 _See the Christmas Toy Ballet_

 _Dance to the bells of the sleigh!_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Click your heels. Point your toes._

 _Spin around and around and around,_

 _And away we go._

 _Clap your hands. Wink your eyes._

 _Jump so high, you can reach the sky!_

As the odd music seemed to be playing out of nowhere, Celestia pointed her horn as the two were flung out the window as Celestia met up with them.

"We're going to fall!" Sunset called out.

"Touch my wings and be lifted." Celestia said calmly as Sunset did so, taking Pinkie up as well with her magic.

"Great way to travel." Pinkie said in complete earnest. "But where are we going?"

"Applejack's house." Celestia replied.

As they arrived they looked in through the window, as before, invisible to all who saw them as Applejack's grandmother Granny Smith was working with her other granddaughter, Sunflower for dinner as Applejack's brother, Big Mac, arrived.

"Hey Granny." Big Mac said. "I could smell that turkey all the way from church."

"But where's Applejack?" Granny asked. "And Applebloom?"

At once, Applejack walked in with a smile. On her back was a filly who looked almost exactly like Applejack but without a yellow coat and red mane along with a bow in her hair. She also had a crutch and her hind leg in a brace.

"Who wants t'know?" Applejack asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, you silly kids." Granny said as Sunflower helped Applebloom down.

"So, how'd Applebloom behave in church?" Granny asked.

"As good as gold and better." Applejack replied. "She told me walking home that she hoped the ponies saw her in church since it might be pleasant to remember on Christmas Day who made lame mares walk and blind mares see."

"Well, come on kids, time for dinner." Granny said as they got the food set up, with an extremely small goose.

"Oh boy, what a great dinner!" Applebloom said excitedly.

"Yep." Applejack said. "I propose a toast to Miss Shimmer."

Everyone groaned at this.

"Come on now." Applebloom said. "We mustn't think poorly of her."

"Why not?!" Sunflower snapped. "It's his thinking that makes us so poor!"

"Now, now." Applejack responded. "Miss Shimmer is the founder of the feast."

"'Feast' indeed." Granny scoffed. "With a goose no bigger than a canary for my grandkids."

"Oh, must I listen?" Sunset asked. She'd never really seen things from Applejack's view of the world, and now he had, he saw how pitiful it seemed.

"Well surely you know how Applejack lived." Celestia replied.

"Instead of docking Applejack half a day, why didn't I give him extra for Christmas?!" Sunset said angrily to himself.

"Sunflower," Applebloom said after dinner. "Did I show you the toy soldier Santa got me, last year?"

"A hundred times, Applebloom." Sunflower said with a laugh.

"I'll show you again." Applebloom said cheerfully as she suddenly fell to the floor.

"She's falling!" Sunset said. "I've got to help her!"

"You can't." Celestia pointed out.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Sunset asked.

"It's perhaps too late." Celestia responded.

Sunflower helped Applejack up and cradled her like a caring sister, shown when Applejack quickly joined her.

"Oh Applebloom, little buddy, are you alright?!" Sunflower asked frantically as everyone else gathered around with the same look of worry on their face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Applebloom said as she held up the soldier.

"See?" Applebloom said.

"Oh, what a brave soldier she is." Sunflower said, talking more about Applebloom than the toy soldier which basically looked like a painted clothes pin.

"The kids at school say there isn't a Santa, and that this is just a clothes pin Applejack painted because she couldn't afford to buy a real one." Applebloom said.

"What nonsense!" Sunflower insisted.

"There is a Santa Claus, isn't there, Sunflower?" Applebloom asked.

"Yes, Applebloom." Sunflower said with assuredness.

 _There is a spirit in the world of generosity_

 _That brings good things to all of us wherever we may be._

 _So I believe in Santa Claus, for it can't be denied_

 _That he is generosity personified._

 _Yes there is a Santa Claus for children everywhere._

 _Though you may watch the chimney tops and never see him there._

 _People say his magic sleigh flies in the sky above,_

 _But you might find it anywhere you find unselfish love!_

 _Oh yes, he really does exist, and Santa Claus will live._

 _As long as hearts can realize how good it feels to give!_

 _So when you are feeling blue, keep up your hope because_

 _If there is kindness in this world, there is a Santa Claus!_

Applebloom nodded and joined into her cousin's song along with her sister.

" _Yes there is a Santa Claus…_ "

Applebloom, Applejack, and Sunflower hugged as everyone smiled and went on enjoying themselves as Sunset could only watch that brave little soldier with her leg in a brace.

* * *

Okay, this section and the next three were why I wanted to do this.


	7. Birthday Party of the King

Chapter 6: Birthday Party of the King

An instant after Sunflower and Applejack assured Applebloom there was a Santa Claus, Sunset and Pinkie were flying above Canterlot again, courtesy of Celestia.

"Haven't you shown me enough already?" Sunset asked more out of the guilt over what Rarity would think of her big sister if she were alive today rather than the frustration she had shown to those children carolers the day before last.

"There is another place to visit." Celestia explained. "Even though you refused the offer yesterday."

"Oh no!" Sunset said as that guilt swelled even more. "Not my niece Sweetie Belle's dinner party!"

But it was too late. The trio was right in the middle of a modest but well-kept home. Sweetie Belle was there with her husband, a stallion with a brown coat, red mane, and amber eyes.

"To Aunt Sunset!" Sweetie Belle called out just as Applejack had done at his own home to the same lukewarm reception.

"That stingy mare who shuns you every time you see her?" Button asked.

"Have pity on her, Button." Sweetie Belle asked.

"Pity?" Button asked. "For a mare so rich? Her entire business is solely to be making a profit."

"Profit, yes." Sweetie Belle said. "But how do the profits profit her? She takes it into his head to dislike us and be gloomy in Trixie's old place. I plan on giving her the same invitation I give her every year until she finally accepts for I pity her."

"How can you have so much patience, Sweetie Belle?" Button asked, obviously ashamed of himself.

"Because my mother always spoke highly of her and no one my mother loved so much can be all bad." Sweetie Belle said simply as everyone went back to the party, somehow even merrier than before.

Sunset however, was weeping silently, especially as her sister's favorite song was playing in the background.

"Why this remorse?" Celestia asked.

"Every year she gives me a gift." Sunset said with a heavy sigh and a trembling voice. "And I toss it away. I never understood such things."

"But gifts have been a part of Christmas from the very beginning." Celestia pointed out. "See that tiny stable under the tree? Perhaps your young companion can tell you."

Pinkie, more out of instinct than anything else, began singing a song her family had taught her as Sunset looked at an ornament depicting the nativity.

 _Christmas Trees are brightly lighted._

 _Through the world the church bells ring._

 _Great and small are all invited_

 _To the birthday party of the King._

 _Mighty prince and humble peasant._

 _Each will choose a gift to bring._

 _Do you have a birthday present_

 _For the birthday party of the King?_

 _Once wise mares came in his honor_

 _Bringing incense, myrrh, and gold._

 _But what is gold to a ruler_

 _Who has all the stars to hold?!_

 _Do you know what gift will please him?_

 _Please him more than anything?!_

 _Bring a heart that really loves him_

 _To the birthday party… Of the King . . .!_

Sunset smiled at the song as she felt her heart swell up at the familiar, but somehow new, story, but then her smile fell as he thought of the Apple house.

"But what about that other child?" Sunset asked Celestia. "So tiny she seems little more than a baby herself. What of Applebloom?"

"I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner." Celestia said solemnly. "And a little clutch without an owner carefully preserved."

As Celestia said this, Sunset found herself in the Apple house to find the scene Celestia described and a family in mourning as they left for the cemetery.

"Oh dear god, let it not be." Sunset gasped as she collapses down at the crutch and wept for the filly her callousness would kill.

* * *

Next chapter, my favorite song in the whole film.


	8. One Little Boy

Chapter Seven: One Little Girl

"Little Applebloom gone?" Sunset asked as he continued to weep. "This cannot be!"

"Why not?" Celestia asked as she walked up behind Sunset. "Who cares?"

 _One little girl is just a dot_

 _In all the equine race._

"What?" Sunset asked, aghast as she thought of both Applebloom and his niece Sweetie Belle when she was little.

 _One little girl is just a spot_

 _Upon a planet's face!_

"No!" Sunset shouted out, speaking unconsciously like her former rather than latter self.

 _And when she is no longer there,_

 _A billion take the place_

 _Of one… Little girl…_

At this, Sunset had to say something, and as she spoke, she unconsciously thought of the children he had known such as Rarity and her own daughter, Sweetie Belle.

 _But one little girl can sing a song_

 _And have a world of fun._

 _One little girl can grow up strong_

 _And leap and jump and run!_

 _And you would want to see her grow_

 _If he would be your foal._

 _That one little girl._

Celestia shook her head and continued.

 _If she passes on…_

 _Utterly, she is gone…_

 _There's one less in the nation…_

 _Let her rest in peace…_

 _And she will decrease…_

 _The surplus population…_

"No!" Sunset called out in horror at her own callousness. "No!"

" _That's what you thought not long ago!_ " Celestia pointed out darkly as all Sunset could do was bow her head in shame.

" _That's what I thought, but now I know._ " Sunset conceded as she picked up the painted clothespin Applejack had made Applebloom for Christmas.

 _One little girl who cannot walk_

 _Is not a broken toy._

 _One little girl can laugh and talk_

 _And fill a home with joy._

 _And no one else can take the place_

 _Of that one little girl._

For a moment, Sunset could swear she saw Applebloom sitting in her seat as she walked up, only to find it empty as she dropped the toy soldier.

 _That one… Little girl._

At this, Sunset one again collapsed at the chair and crutch and wept as Celestia simply disappeared as she could barely perceive the room changing back into her parlor as Pinkie came up and hugged Sunset for comfort, and she gratefully hugged her back.

"What next?" Pinkie groaned as they heard the stroke of midnight and all looked out to see a solitary, black pony with fly wings.

* * *

Well, we're coming close to the end now. Also, this song was my favorite in the whole movie.


End file.
